Pallium

The Pallium is a circular strip of white lamb's wool about two inches wide, with two pendant two-inch wide vertical strips or bands, one in front, one in back. It is worn over the shoulders like a large, loose collar, approximately one and a half feet in diameter, the pendant bands giving it a Y-shaped appearance, and the whole is adorned with six black crosses, one each on the chest and the back, one on each shoulder, and one on each vertical pendant band at about the level of the heart. It is a liturgical vestment or garment, worn over the chasuble of the pope, and the chasubles of archbishops, and of some bishops in the Roman Catholic Church.

It is bestowed by the pope on archbishops and bishops having metropolitan jurisdiction as a symbol of their participation in papal authority.